Rough time for House Speaker Straus

Despite a loss of seven seats in the 150-member Texas House of Representatives and failing to win what once looked like a winnable state Senate seat, Republicans remain in firm control of the statehouse.

Whether that’s good news for House Speaker Joe Straus is debatable in light of some developments after Tuesday’s election.

First, more than 100 conservative activists from across the state have endorsed East Texas GOP Rep. Bryan Hughes, the only challenger Straus has so far. By this time two years ago the San Antonio Republican had two, one of whom was Warren Chisum, R-Pampa.

If Straus has the 76 pledges he needs to win a third term as speaker, he hasn’t said it.

One reason may be because 40 of the 43 new House members are truly first-timers. The other three – all Democrats – are former members returning after a two-year absence.

The other reason may be the Democratic minority, which once embraced Straus, remains unhappy with him. As San Antonio’s Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer – a former ally – said before last year’s session ended, Straus “has turned his back on Texas women and minorities.”

Since then, Martinez Fischer has urged fellow House Democrats to hold off their support for him.

The criticism hasn’t stopped. In a Friday memo to Democratic colleagues, Martinez Fischer ridiculed him for hiring the global crisis management firm Burson-Marsteller.

He also wondered whether Straus can be re-elected.

“We are 9 weeks away from the 83rd Session and Speaker Straus cannot get the 76 votes, even with a 95-Republican member majority,” the memo reads. “This is remarkable considering that Speaker Straus laid out 106 pledges on June 8, 2009, less than one week after the 2009 legislative session.”

Though for now the conventional wisdom in Austin is that Straus will be re-elected, we will soon find out whether Hughes’ challenge is real. Most important for Straus, faced with the prospect of a Speaker Hughes, is whether the Democrats stick with him again.

As some Democrats say privately, they consider him the lesser of the two evils.